The Great Shamrock Incident
by Rose's.wings
Summary: The Irish say that it is often a person's mouth that breaks his nose. But for Sunny, it's his mouth that ends up ruining his paint job and earning him the nickname 'Samrock Swunny'. Will he ever learn? *Sigh* No, probably not. Be mindful of alien swearing...


Ahahaha! Surprise story! I didn't even know I had this one in me before I pictured Sunny as...well, I'll let you find out. *Devious laughter and rubbing of hands* It seems I am on a holiday posting streak, even though it is St. Patty's Day which gets little love and lots of pinches, so I hope you love it! And let this be a warning to you to wear green every 17 of March!

(Grace = maniacal Tee hee hee hee)

(Rolls eyes) Thanks go to my little sister Grace, for letting me read this out loud to her. Thank you! ;)

Now go ahead read, enjoy, and Happy St. Patrick's Day! Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage. n_n

^..^

The Great Shamrock Incident

^..^

"It is often that a person's mouth broke his nose."

An Irish Saying

^..^

"Come on Sunny, just put it on." Hound told the younger mech.

Sunstreaker shot the officer a glare, as much for the nickname as for the stupidity he was encouraging. "No."

"Aw come on Bro, everybody's doin' it." Sideswipe joined in.

"No." Sunstreaker refused stubbornly.

Down near their feet, the human Aria scowled up at him, somewhat irritated. "Would you quit being such a party pooper?" She told him.

Sunstreaker met her scowl for scowl, but didn't say anything since he had no idea what she was talking about, and he refused to admit that he didn't.

After a moment, Aria gave up on the scowling contest. "Oh for Heaven's sake would you just hold still?" She demanded, throwing up her hands in exasperation; making specks of green fly out behind her.

Sunstreaker threw an accusing finger at her. "Get away from me with that paintbrush organic femme!" He growled at her, taking another step backwards. He stopped when his back met the unmoving wall.

_"Ah Pit."_ He thought.

Next to Aria, Sideswipe grinned crookedly. Sunstreaker could feel his humor through their bond. He was actually _amused _that one little human with a paintbrush was threatening him. It didn't help anything that he thought Sunstreaker was acting like one of the younglings that was usually running around the rec room. "Quit fightin' her Bro. It's useless when she's determined. All femmes are like that."

Sunstreaker shot his only brother a look that said he was soon to be an only child if Sideswipe didn't get back on _his_ side of this ridiculous argument. But Sideswipe only winked at him, being cheeky, and then flashed the funny looking four leafed green-thing he had painted on the palm of his hand.

_"I hate organic celebrations."_ Sunstreaker thought as Sideswipe took what appeared to be an amiable step forward, although Sunstreaker knew otherwise. _"They're torture. Undeniable, paint ruining, torture!"_ He ranted angrily. He thought a klik and then added, _"And they turn everybody else into IDIOTS!"_

^..^

It had started off as such as nice, _normal_, orbit. Practice drills took place, orders were given, and the lovely smell that always followed discharged weapons filled the halls. All in all it was the kind of orbit that made Sunstreaker glad he was alive.

And then he made the great mistake of passing the small room that most every other mech alive called the nursery.

Sunstreaker had hardly noticed at first. He didn't even see the mechling that had wandered out into the hall until he almost tripped over him.

Sunstreaker caught himself before he lost his balance, and then when he didn't see anybody else around him, he looked down.

Wide blue optics looked back up at him. It was the smallest, and brightest, of the younglings, the one the organic femme Aria called Bumblebee. Like all the others, he was small, just barely out of sparklinghood, and his optics were only just strong enough to focus on Sunstreaker's face where he towered over the kid.

Sunstreaker scowled down at the small youngling sitting obliviously in the hallway. "You're blocking traffic kid. Get back in your-" Sunstreaker shot a disdaining look at the open door nearby, "-playroom…thing."

Bumblebee didn't move, just stared up at him.

Sunstreaker groaned slightly before yelling into the open nursery. "Hey femme! One of your gremlins escaped! Come get him! He's in the way-HEY!"

Something cold and wet suddenly snaked down Sunstreaker's shin guard and he jumped away. He looked down, jaw dropping when he saw the wet streak of bright purple paint Bumblebee had started to coat him with.

"What'd'ya do that for gremlin?" Sunstreaker yelled at the bright yellow youngling.

Bumblebee just blinked up at the ticked off Sunstreaker. "Swunny." He managed to say.

Sunstreaker growled angrily. "It's Sunstreaker!" He roared.

Bumblebee leaned away from the loud mech, optics going wider as it finally occurred to him that 'Swunny' was angry with him.

Fortunately before he could start to cry, Aria poked her head out of the nursery door. She bit back a grin when she saw her _di di_ sitting in the hallway, paintbrush in hand, messy purple flowers dribbled on the wall in front of him.

"Aw, 'Bee, you know you're not supposed to paint on the walls." She told him, but she was trying not to smile when she said it. He was just so darn cute sometimes.

Bumblebee's little antennae picked up when he saw his organic sister walking over to him. He immediately forgot Sunny was even there as he reached out to Aria, clicking and whirring happily in his baby-talk.

Sunstreaker glowered at the pair. He liked being ignored as much as he liked being painted purple. "Look what your gremlin did to me femme! He got paint on me!"

Aria shot Sunstreaker a sardonic look. "Quit whining Sunny. It's just a little paint. If you wash if off while it's still wet you won't even remember it was there by nightfall." She told him dismissively. Choosing to ignore the fact that he had called her _di di_ a gremlin for the moment.

Sunstreaker huffed. "Well he shouldn't even have done it in the first place. Keep your gremlins to yourself or paint on the walls will be the least of your worries."

It was a mistake. He knew it the moment the words came out his mouth. It was common knowledge that the nursery was Aria's domain, and it was never wise to threaten someone on their turf. It was never wise to threaten femmes period too, or so Sideswipe had told him, but right then Sunstreaker was too incensed by the stupid purple streak dripping down his shin to really care.

Aria's mouth dropped open and she placed a protective hand on Bumblebee's paint smeared leg. The youngling just looked at his sister, whirring in worried confusion.

That was another mistake, Sunstreaker realized later looking back. Aria had a soft spot for Bumblebee, even over the other younglings, although she was pretty fair between the seven of them. She had found Bumblebee's spark first when she had gotten lost down in the Well of AllSparks, and his was the only spark she'd had direct contact with. Needless to say, she was the most protective of him.

Sunstreaker hadn't let the organic femme get a word in. He'd just smirked at her and pointedly stepped over the mess of paint the yellow youngling had dripped on the floor. He knew the femme was watching him as he left, so he made sure to put a little extra swagger in his step, just to annoy her more.

Aria watched the insufferable mech leave. "Ohhh…" she grumbled as he turned the corner, "he's worse then…then…" she couldn't actually think of a decent comparison, so she settled for another, "ohhh…" and a stomp of her foot.

Bumblebee giggled when she sent up a splatter of green paint. He clicked happily as he copied her and splashed at the paint buckets in front of him with gusto, sending up a rainbow of colors.

Some of Aria's anger ebbed away and she smiled at her _di di_. "What do ya say 'Bee? Should we teach mean ol' Sunny who's boss?" She asked him conspiratorially.

"Swunny!" Bumblebee shouted excitedly, throwing up his multi-colored arms over his head as he did.

Aria grinned at him. "That's right, Swunny-I mean, Sunny." She corrected herself. She had already started calling Prowl 'Pwowl'; she didn't need to incorporate _more_ baby-talk into her everyday speech.

"Now, 'Bee," Aria said, leaning in close to the yellow mechling that wasn't much taller than her when he was sitting down, "do you know what a shamrock is?"

^..^

And that had signaled Sunstreaker's doom. With a cunning he hadn't thought the little organic capable of, Aria had set about introducing the mechs and femmes of Iacon to an ancient lucky charm from Earth.

"The shamrock," he had caught her explaining to a group of bots in the rec room, "is a green four leaf clover. And once every year people on Earth wear them for good luck."

"Well what if you can't find any of these clovers?" The oldest of Aria's gaggle of younglings, a young mech called Bluestreak, had asked as he let the younglings Bumblebee and Arcee paint the funny looking shamrocks on him. The two largely ignored the organic's story and were busy clicking and buzzing to themselves as they painted. As Sunstreaker unobtrusively watched, the pink femmeling had laughed and slopped a streak of green on her companion. That made 'Bee laugh too.

"Then they just wear something green." Aria answered Bluestreak's question.

"Sounds fun." The silver and blue femme Chromia had said somewhat sarcastically. She rolled her eyes at Firestar standing next to her. Behind them, Sunstreaker saw his twin brother Sideswipe grin crookedly.

"Well," Aria said, looking up at them far too innocently, "it helps that those that _don't_ have a shamrock or green on them get pinched by those that do. So, ya know, it pays to just paint your nails or something, at least for the day." She had told them with a wide smile.

And that's where Sideswipe had taken over. Soon enough most of the bots in the city had painted at least a spot of green on them just to avoid _him_. He was merciless in his enforcement of Shamrock Orbit, as some mechs had started to call it. And if you didn't have at least one of the blasted things on you _somewhere_, he got you. And he didn't usually just pinch you either.

"OW! Dang it Sideswipe!" Treads had yelled, one hand holding the back of his head where the silver mech had politely brained him with one of the younglings' bouncing balls. "What the Pit do you think you're doing?"

Sideswipe had just grinned at the former Kaon gladiator. "I don't see any green on you Treads." He had told him far too cheerfully, as if this was a perfectly normal reason for whacking someone upside the head with a child's toy.

Sunstreaker had watched, rolled his optics, and told his brother that if he whacked him he would tell Ironhide what had really happened to his new cannon.

That had bought him some safe-time. But he should have known that Sideswipe wouldn't have been put off forever. It didn't help that Aria was still angry at him for calling her little brothera gremlin on more then one occasion.

So he really shouldn't have been surprised when he suddenly found himself cornered later in the orbit.

_"Fraggin' organic holiday." _Sunny thought again as he warily eyed the three standing in front of him. Beyond them, the rest of the bots in the rec room watched, not bothering to hide the grins on their faces. The gold bot could tell they all wanted to see him shamrocked.

"Come on Bro, just hold still. You'll never even know it's there." Sideswipe told him, grinning as he held up the paint brush he had just taken from Aria.

"Slag no!" Sunstreaker shouted as he pressed himself back against the wall, looking for a way out of the green doom Sideswipe, Aria, and Hound were threatening him with.

A small, shocked, "Eep!" announced the presence of Bumblebee. Aria and Sunstreaker looked over to see the little bot sitting in the femme Ariel's lap. He looked positively scandalized at the bad word. Next to him, Arcee and Val, held by Chromia and Treads' respectively, had been shocked speechless.

"Watch your mouth Sunny!" Aria hissed at him.

Sunstreaker glared down at the organic femme. He should have stopped there – Aria was ruthless when it came to mechs swearing around her younglings and even Ironhide was careful with what he said when one of the little bots was in auditory-shot – but of course Sunstreaker refused to be intimidated by a creature that couldn't even reach his knee joint.

"Frag." He said.

Bumblebee "Eeped!" again.

Sunstreaker felt himself start to smirk. "Slaggit."

Val gasped.

_"Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this."_ Sunstreaker thought, grin growing wider.

"Fraggin' slaggin' slaggar fraggit slaggin' slagger fraggin' _slag_!" He shouted.

The room went dead silent. Even the adults were watching him with wide optics now. They weren't precisely sure what would happen now but they all knew it would be-

"Uh-ohhh…" Arcee said.

Yeah, that about covered it.

To some of their surprise, Aria did not explode right then and there. Although Sunstreaker noticed that even Sideswipe shuffled carefully away from her slightly.

All the human did though, was look up at Sunstreaker with narrowed eyes. He could have been blind and still known she wanted to do more than pinch him for not wearing green.

Wordlessly, she handed over her single paint bucket to Sideswipe.

"I'm gonna go get some more paint." She muttered.

Then she stalked out the door.

All optics followed her until she had stalked out of sight into the hallway.

"Swunny's in twoubleeee…" Bumblebee mumbled, but in the silence of the room, his little kid's words were deafening.

After a long, silent klik, Sideswipe slowly turned to look at his twin. Sunstreaker couldn't help but go cold at the grin spread across his brother's face.

"Well you heard 'em Bro," he said calmly, "you know what comes next."

He silently held up the brush and the paint bucket.

Sunstreaker glared at his brother, optics quickly flicking over the crowd behind him. He knew what was coming alright, and suddenly it involved every bot in the room, except for the younglings and the adults holding them. Although Sunstreaker did notice that Treads had handed off Val to Bluestreak and Ariel was now holding Bumblebee and Arcee. Chromia was grinning at him wolfishly, hands suddenly free to greenify him.

_"Ah Pit," _Sunstreaker thought again. There were too many to fight off now, and with that string of explicatives, he had fragged off all of them. He supposed he could, technically, surrender, but his pride wouldn't let him. And even if it had gone crazy and suggested the unthinkable, he would have kicked that idea so hard that it would have sailed from here to Kaon.

So he did the only course of action left open to him.

He bolted.

He didn't get very far. Sideswipe – his own _brother_ he thought melodramatically – tackled him, throwing them both to the ground. They rolled across the floor – Sideswipe laughing maniacally and Sunstreaker threatening to do some very nasty things to him in his recharge – making mechs scatter out of their way. He was humiliated to hear that most of them laughed when they caught sight of the trail of green they were leaving behind.

Sunstreaker felt a sense of cold, resigned, dread start to sneak up on him when he realized this. It only got worse when Sideswipe finally managed to pin his older brother to the floor.

For a moment, Sunstreaker looked up at Sideswipe.

"You wouldn't." He muttered darkly.

Sideswipe's grin got bigger and Sunstreaker realized…he would.

It was at that moment that Aria reappeared, two brand new buckets of paint held in her hands. A grinning Cliffjumper followed behind, carrying enough paint to paint the rec room ten times over.

_"Ah Pit,"_ Sunstreaker thought for the third and last time as he looked up in resignation at his brother above him.

Sideswipe grinned and then hollered at the top of his voice.

"GET HIM!"

^..^

Five cycles, forty kilks, and seventy-three nanokliks later, Sunstreaker was met with a horrifying realization.

He was green.

HE WAS FRAGGIN' _GREEN!_

For a moment he sat there, stupefied, staring at his arms, his legs, his torso, trying to see if there was an end to this nightmarish stretch of green.

There wasn't.

They had even painted the bottom of his feet green.

The crowd had dispersed a few kliks after they were done. They had descended on him, like fraggin' _cyber-vultures_, as soon as Sideswipe had yelled out his open invitation. There were hardly any times when Sunstreaker had wished he was more liked by the other bots in Iacon. Generally he was just too preoccupied with himself to care.

He cared right now.

Now he was just beginning to think that _maybe_ he shouldn't have rigged the lift to only go to level seven last orn, _maybe_ he shouldn't have hidden Ratchet's wrenches from him so they wouldn't have to prank in fear for just one orbit, _maybe _he shouldn't have waxed the landing strip the other orbit right before the arielbots had come in for their landing, and _maybe_, just _maybe_, he shouldn't have stolen the younglings' pacifiers from Aria that one time.

Because apparently he had ticked a few bots off somewhere along the line.

Because _apparently_ they had felt the need to Paint Him _Green_.

Sideswipe was snickering above him. "Wow Bro," he managed to say before losing his straight face, "you look," snicker, "great." All out laughter followed his words.

Sunstreaker felt his left optic twitch as he glared at his twin. "The first thing I'm going to do tomorrow is kill you Sides'. You know that right?"

Sideswipe was too busy doubled over with laughter to hear him.

Sunstreaker opened his mouth to make more useless threats, but he was quickly distracted by a familiar wet, dripping sensation on his shin guard.

Slowly, he looked down.

Bumblebee was sitting in front of him, paintbrush in hand. This time it was white paint. When he looked down at his shin (he flinched when the glaring scene of green struck his optics again), he saw a bumpy white line that looked, vaguely, like-

"Samrock." Bumblebee clicked.

Aria smiled at him, anger appeased now that Sunny was enshrouded with humiliation via green paint. "That's right 'Bee. Shamrock."

Arcee and Val crawled through the forest of feet and sat next to 'Bee and Aria. Sunstreaker glared down at them but didn't move as Arcee patted his shin, getting white and green paint on her small hands.

"Samrock Swunny." She stated.

Chromia laughed at her little sister. "Right Arcee, Shamrock Sunny."

Sideswipe managed to get enough control over his laughter to say, "the new name suits you Bro," before he burst out laughing again, joined by Hound, Cliffjumper, and Ironhide.

The rest of the crowd valiantly tried to hold in their snickers.

"Pwetty fwower." Val said as he peered up at the green painted mech. The adults all laughed harder.

That was the last straw. Sunstreaker huffed and stalked toward the door, stepping over the younglings as he did.

"Hey!" Bumblebee cried out. "Come back! Samrock not done!"

Fortunately the rec room door closed before more bouts of laughter could follow Sunny out the door.

He stalked down the halls of Iacon, ignoring any other bots he happened to pass. Most either snickered at him or stared in all out shock. He glared at the few that dared to laugh outright.

Eventually he found a deserted room and parked himself in the far corner. He sat there, sulking, glaring at his now very _green_ torso. Then when he just couldn't stand it any longer, he looked up with a disgusted noise in the back of his vocal processor and decided to stare at the wall instead.

And then, oddly enough, he saw something that suddenly made this orbit – stupid Earth holiday, Shamrock Sunny and all – just absolutely _beautiful_.

Sunstreaker smiled almost devilishly at the white and black officer now coming towards him. Sensing Sunstreaker's stare, the mech looked up and scowled when he saw the previously yellow twin. Then he seemed to notice that Sunstreaker was no longer yellow. But even as he looked the twin up and down in total disbelief, Sunstreaker still felt perfectly, marvelously, _wonderful_.

The officer finally looked up again, narrowing his optics at Sunstreaker's manic gaze. "What are you looking at?" He demanded.

Sunstreaker felt his grin stretch wider.

"You're not wearing any _green_ Prowl."


End file.
